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What happens when one half of the world needs jobs... and the other half needs workers?
- May 27
- 1 min read
Africa and Asia will define the future workforce of the world.
Nearly half the global population today is Gen Z and Gen Alpha — with hundreds of millions of young people entering working age across Africa and Asia over the next two decades.
At the same time:
• youth unemployment remains critically high
• informal economies are expanding
• AI is accelerating
• and traditional job creation is slowing.
Meanwhile, many developed nations are facing the opposite problem:
declining birth rates, ageing populations, and shrinking working-age labour pools.
So here is the question I genuinely want leaders to answer:
How do we mobilise nations with rapidly growing young populations — while supplementing nations with declining working-age populations?
What happens when millions of young people are economically active — but formal economies cannot absorb them at scale?
What will work, income, migration, identity, and opportunity look like for Gen Z and Gen Alpha in this new reality?
And are governments, educators, and businesses redesigning fast enough for the world these generations are actually inheriting?
This is one of the core questions behind Workforce 2035.
Not speaking about young people.
Building with them.
If you are interested in supporting this mission — through sponsorship, partnership, research collaboration, media, education, policy, technology, mentorship, or industry access — we would love to hear from you.
We are actively building a global ecosystem around the future of work, learning, AI, mobility, and opportunity for the next generations.
Contact: www.wf35.com/contact
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